1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a contact which is effectively used in a socket for an electric part such as an IC socket or the like, and more particularly to a contact in which contact elements of the contact are forcedly separated by a lateral movement in one direction of a moving plate provided on a socket body so that terminals of the electric part can be inserted and removed under no load, and the separating force is canceled by a lateral movement in the other direction of the moving plate so that the terminals of the electric part can be brought into contact with contact elements of the contact.
2. Prior Art
A conventional contact of this type, as shown by representative example in FIGS. 11a, 11b and 12, has a pair of elongated contact elements 11a and 11b disposed in such a manner that plate surfaces (outer surfaces of the contact material) face each other, contacting portions 11c and 11d being formed in the vicinity of the free ends of the contacting elements 11a and 11b so that a terminal of an electric part can be pinched between the plate surfaces of the contacting portions 11c and 11d, the leading end of the contact element 11a extending upward beyond the leading end of the other contact element 11b to form a pressure receiving portion 11e.
This conventional contact 11 is formed in such a manner that the contact elements 11a and 11b, as shown in FIG. 12, are cut out of a sheet of contact material in a developed shape, and then folded along a connecting portion to the afore-described facing state.
When in operation, the contact 11 is held by a socket body and the pressure receiving portion 11e is engaged with a lower surface of a moving plate which horizontally moves along the upper surface of the socket body, so that a pushing force is applied to the pressure receiving portion 11e of the contact 11 by a lateral movement of the moving plate in one direction to separate the contacting portions 11e and 11d and an electric part is inserted therebetween and removed therefrom under no load, and the separating force is removed by a lateral movement of the moving plate in the other direction, thereby to achieve the above-described pinching contact.
However, this conventional contact requires a comparatively complicated bending treatment, and a large amount of a metallic material is consumed for a single contact. In addition, the productivity of the contact is inferior, dimensional accuracy thereof is difficult to obtain, and the contact becomes expensive.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems.